Slava Voynov

LOS ANGELES, October 21. /TASS/. Russian diplomats intend to meet with Russian ice hockey player Slava Voynov from NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, arrested in the United States on Monday on suspicion of domestic violence, a spokesman for the Russian Consulate General in San Francisco said on Tuesday.

“Information on the arrest of the Russian citizen Vyacheslav Voynov was received from Los Angeles by the Russian Consulate General’s Office in San Francisco in the morning of October 20,” Yevgeny Avdoshin said.

Avdoshin added that staff members at the Consulate General’s Office “immediately contacted the law enforcement bodies and agents of the athlete.”

Los Angeles law enforcers have not pressed any formal charges against the 24-year-old defenseman of Los Angeles Kings as of yet, and a tentative court hearing was set for December 1. Voynov have been already released from custody after posting $50,000 bail.

There were no details of the incident Voynov was involved in, but according to local media, he faces between two and four years in prison if found guilty.

The National Hockey League (NHL) acted swiftly after the news of the athlete’s arrest broke out and announced his indefinite suspension. Voynov’s Los Angeles Kings club followed the NHL’s suit.

The NHL said in its official statement on Monday that Voynov was “suspended indefinitely from all club activities pending a formal investigation by the National Hockey League of an arrest this morning on charges of domestic violence.”

The statement added that if the NHL had failed to suspend the player at the issue, it “would create a substantial risk of material harm to the legitimate interests and/or reputation of the league.”

Voynov was a member of the Russian national team playing at this year’s Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and was one of the key contributors to his NHL’s Los Angeles Kings club prestigious Stanley Cup trophies in 2012 and 2014. Following the 2012-2013 season Voynov signed with Los Angeles Kings a six-year contract worth $25 million.

Similar to Voynov’s incident took place last year with another Russia’s NHL player Semyon Varlamov, who is the key goalie of the Russian national ice hockey team and of Colorado Avalanche.

In late October of 2013, Varlamov was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and was charged with third-degree assault and second-degree kidnapping. The charges against the Russian goalie were dropped over the following two months as prosecutors cited the lack of evidence in his case.

However, unlike Voynov, Varlamov was not suspended by the NHL and continued playing throughout two months of court hearings into his case.

The New York Times daily reported on Monday that asked why the league acted different in Voynov’s case than in Varlamov’s, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said, “The actual facts we were made aware of and were responding to were significantly different in the two cases.”

The HockeyNews.com quoted Daly as answering the same question as "I think the landscape has changed for all of us over the past six months."